The results are based on the perceptions of more than 4,500 respondents who completed The Reputations Agency survey in the first three months of 2017.

The survey quantifies the emotional bond stakeholders have with 50 leading companies, and how these connections drive supportive behaviour such as a willingness to purchase a company’s products, recommend the brand, invest, welcome into their community or even work for the company.
Companies that were worst regarded were Irish Water, Bank of Ireland, and AIB.

Overall, the public feel more positive about firms this year than last year, when 27pc of firms’ reputations significantly declined.
When looking at industry reputations, the food & beverage sector remains the most highly regarded, while the financial services sector is the weakest with an 18-point difference in reputation scores across sectors.

The research shows that reputation substantially drives business results by increasing the propensity to buy, recommend, trust, invest, work for, or welcome companies into the community.

“From this year’s study, we can see that consumers in Ireland are ten times more likely to purchase a product or service from a company and seven times more likely to work for a company with an excellent reputation than a company with a poor reputation,” Niamh Boyle, managing director, at The Reputations Agency said.
Companies were ranked on a reputation pulse score from 0-100 based on levels of trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling towards the companies, and were grouped as excellent (80+), strong (70-79), average (60-69), weak (40-59) or poor (below 40).